No more Pk3 at Ross ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do they go for 5th grade?

Most stay for 5th. Those who leave lottery in to charters. Basis. Latin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do they go for 5th grade?

Most stay for 5th. Those who leave lottery in to charters. Basis. Latin.

If you want to go to certain privates the year to do it is 4th when they add a significant number of new students. Others expand at 6th.

[Anonymous]

Recent Ross parent, of a kid who is now in 6th at a charter. In my kid's year, almost half left after 4th grade. Most to charters, 1 or 2 to private. Of the remainder, a few moved within the city or were already in the Deal boundary (formerly OOB for Ross), I think another lotteried into Hardy, and the rest are mostly at Francis Stevens.

Of the kids that started together in PK4, the ones who left prior to 4th grade about 3-4 left for moves out of the country. One left for the suburbs and one moved out of state.

The next younger class, the current 5th grade, had about 6-7 kids I think who left for charters after 4th. I believe there are around 20 left, and most of those will go to Francis Stevens, so a higher number than my kid's class.

I'm glad to see a group of parents giving Francis Stevens a chance, and I wish only good things for the future. DC needs more good middle school options.

[Anonymous]

PP here again to add that we loved the Ross experience. Great academics and a warm community. Lots of families who truly enjoy an urban lifestyle, diverse community, and easy commute to work, and willing to sacrifice space to get that. We didn't know of any kids leaving because the families were unhappy with the school. Just DC life happening - moving for jobs, etc. Though I will say that the shift to Cardozo as a feeder had most of the families trying to think long-term when figuring out middle school and beyond. It's why we switched to a charter, so that there was a good path through high school.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Very few Ross families go private. A handful go to charters for 5th grade. Most of those who remain are heading to Francis Stevens. Some move for Deal/Wilson or MCPS.

Not true. The wealthier parents start leaving after kindergarten for private when the classes get really big.

Milton has a stop right near Ross, several kids are going to middle school there.

If you're talking about Milton Gottesman, parents who decide to send their kids there are often heavily weighting Jewish cultural/religious factors, and those factors don't apply to every Ross student. Milton has advantages, but it's not going to be weighted equally by everyone, and in this case should be considered a bit of an outlier.

They give a lot of aid - so parents who would not otherwise consider day school, but need a private, like many Ross parents, go private. Not an outlier.

But are any families really leaving for Milton? In the past few years I know of only one family.

we have been at the school 5 years. Only know three families that went private. Teo to WIS. One catholic.. Don’t know any who went to Milton. Not to say there haven’t been a couple but I doubt there sre many.

Plenty leave for the Nwdc and Maryland burbs. Particularly with pk3 being gone-the incentive to stick around Dupont with kids diminishes.

The data tells a different story. Rapid in boundary enrollment growth + more families staying in the neighborhood through middle school.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Very few Ross families go private. A handful go to charters for 5th grade. Most of those who remain are heading to Francis Stevens. Some move for Deal/Wilson or MCPS.

Not true. The wealthier parents start leaving after kindergarten for private when the classes get really big.

Milton has a stop right near Ross, several kids are going to middle school there.

If you're talking about Milton Gottesman, parents who decide to send their kids there are often heavily weighting Jewish cultural/religious factors, and those factors don't apply to every Ross student. Milton has advantages, but it's not going to be weighted equally by everyone, and in this case should be considered a bit of an outlier.

They give a lot of aid - so parents who would not otherwise consider day school, but need a private, like many Ross parents, go private. Not an outlier.

But are any families really leaving for Milton? In the past few years I know of only one family.

we have been at the school 5 years. Only know three families that went private. Teo to WIS. One catholic.. Don’t know any who went to Milton. Not to say there haven’t been a couple but I doubt there sre many.

Plenty leave for the Nwdc and Maryland burbs. Particularly with pk3 being gone-the incentive to stick around Dupont with kids diminishes.

The data tells a different story. Rapid in boundary enrollment growth + more families staying in the neighborhood through middle school.

The data does not support that most families stay inbound for MS. Quite the opposite. With the feeder pattern having been changed, this will be even more true...

[Anonymous]

Ross family here - it is true that in the past many families were not willing to give SWW@FS a try. Many left for charters starting in 5th. Some moved within DC. A couple each year went to private.

But what PPs have said is true - that is changing. There are about 10 Ross kids in the current 6th grade at SWW@FS, and if all the current Ross 5th graders go there for 6th next year, that will be about 20. There is still a high school feeder issue, but I think many families hope their kid tests into SWW high school. At this point, I don't know of anyone planning on Cardozo for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ross family here - it is true that in the past many families were not willing to give SWW@FS a try. Many left for charters starting in 5th. Some moved within DC. A couple each year went to private.

But what PPs have said is true - that is changing. There are about 10 Ross kids in the current 6th grade at SWW@FS, and if all the current Ross 5th graders go there for 6th next year, that will be about 20. There is still a high school feeder issue, but I think many families hope their kid tests into SWW high school. At this point, I don't know of anyone planning on Cardozo for high school.

They should start thinking about a plan b (and there are options). Nearly everyone outside a Wilson feeder hopes their child gets into SWW high school.

2018-19 was the first year in a long time that SWW did not clear its wait list -- they admit about 120 9th grade students each year and put another 70-80 on the wait list (out of about 700 who tested last year).

OTOH they are nearly doubling the seats at Banneker in a couple years, and McKinley's test scores are going up.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course families are looking into all options. Nobody thinks they can 100% count on SWW. But naturally it's a hope and is walking distance for many Ross families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, of course families are looking into all options. Nobody thinks they can 100% count on SWW. But naturally it's a hope and is walking distance for many Ross families.

And I think those kids have a great chance -- it is a small number of kids who all scored super high on PARCC. Why not try?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Very few Ross families go private. A handful go to charters for 5th grade. Most of those who remain are heading to Francis Stevens. Some move for Deal/Wilson or MCPS.

Not true. The wealthier parents start leaving after kindergarten for private when the classes get really big.

Milton has a stop right near Ross, several kids are going to middle school there.

If you're talking about Milton Gottesman, parents who decide to send their kids there are often heavily weighting Jewish cultural/religious factors, and those factors don't apply to every Ross student. Milton has advantages, but it's not going to be weighted equally by everyone, and in this case should be considered a bit of an outlier.

They give a lot of aid - so parents who would not otherwise consider day school, but need a private, like many Ross parents, go private. Not an outlier.

But are any families really leaving for Milton? In the past few years I know of only one family.

we have been at the school 5 years. Only know three families that went private. Teo to WIS. One catholic.. Don’t know any who went to Milton. Not to say there haven’t been a couple but I doubt there sre many.

Plenty leave for the Nwdc and Maryland burbs. Particularly with pk3 being gone-the incentive to stick around Dupont with kids diminishes.

The data tells a different story. Rapid in boundary enrollment growth + more families staying in the neighborhood through middle school.

The data does not support that most families stay inbound for MS. Quite the opposite. With the feeder pattern having been changed, this will be even more true...

In 2011, Ross was 21% in boundary with an enrollment of 145. So 30 in boundary kids. Last year it was 74% with an enrollment of 174. So 129 in boundary kids. That’s a 330% increase in in boundary enrollment in 7 years. 5th grade numbers are up from less 10 as recently as 2015 to 21 this year. And in recent years the majority of 5th graders have gone on to Francis Stevens for middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is interesting is that 90% and 80% of students from Ross are proficient or advanced in literacy and mathematics. Basically all students in the classroom are proficient. SWW@FS's scores from last year's PARCC 39% and 43%. That means not even half are proficient. As a parent, I would not be happy nor content with my child going from a classroom full of proficient/advanced students to a classroom that is not even half proficient. What do you think?

It is tough. But if a big enough cohort travels from grade 5 to 6 it become easier to deal with. Also the kids scoring low probably are new to English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is interesting is that 90% and 80% of students from Ross are proficient or advanced in literacy and mathematics. Basically all students in the classroom are proficient. SWW@FS's scores from last year's PARCC 39% and 43%. That means not even half are proficient. As a parent, I would not be happy nor content with my child going from a classroom full of proficient/advanced students to a classroom that is not even half proficient. What do you think?

It is tough. But if a big enough cohort travels from grade 5 to 6 it become easier to deal with. Also the kids scoring low probably are new to English.

Unlikely to explain all of it -- there are 497 students (297 in the testing grades / 150 in MS) at SWW@FS and only 12% in the entire school are ELLs.

There is, however, a 40+ point gap between the performance of white and Asian students and black and Latino students.

[Anonymous]

I may have missed it somewhere in one of the previous posts, but with no PK3, what will the extra classroom be used for?

[Anonymous]

Hasn’t been announced.